Now in its eighth year, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for top cinematic achievements in 2024.

The 38 voting members of the AFCC chose director Sean Baker’s Anora, the winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or, as its top film of the year. The sweet and sinister modern fairy tale, which also won Best Original Screenplay, features a breakout performance from Mikey Madison as Ani, a Brighton Beach stripper who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch. Madison is also the AFCC’s Best Lead Actress and Best Breakthrough Performer for her complex portrait of a woman equal parts fragile and bullet-proof. “I think most of the credit is due to the character of Ani and Mikey Madison’s performance. From moment one, you care so deeply about Ani and what happens to her. You want to go with her on this journey, no matter what happens,” said AFCC member Sammie Purcell, associate editor of Rough Draft Atlanta.

This year’s top films were a fascinatingly diverse mix, ranging from a clever spin on the Wizard of Oz in Wicked, to a tennis love triangle with heart-pounding matches in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, one of two films by the Italian director this year along with Queer. In a stunning, expertly crafted opus that never loses your interest despite its three-and-a-half-hour length, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist follows a Hungarian Jewish refugee from Germany’s concentration camps to what initially seems to be an American promised land. Corbet won Best Director for his self-assured, acclaimed epic portrait of the rigors of immigration and creativity. Adrien Brody also won the AFCC’s Best Actor Award for his doleful turn in the film as the tortured, mercurial architect contending with the maddening whims of his benefactor.

“This year, our critics seemed to gravitate to smaller budget labors of love,” said AFCC advisory board member Hannah Lodge. “Films like Anora, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, and I Saw the TV Glow remind us that cost doesn’t correlate with worth.”

Despite the diversity of films, AFCC member Spencer Perry, editor and critic at ComicBook.com, saw some common ground in the AFCC’s selections. “Something that feels distinct across all of our top 10 films is the idea of legacy. Be it Vanya’s parents in Anora, the rivalry between Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson in Challengers, picking a new pope in Conclave, a galactic empire facing war in Dune: Part Two, or even a single robot learning to choose its own destiny in The Wild Robot, all of these films are wrestling with what someone can be or should be, either in their own eyes or in everyone else’s.”

Number three on the AFCC’s top 10 films, screenwriter RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes’s adaptation of novelist Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Nickel Boys, about two Black boys trying to survive a brutal Florida reform school, won Best Adapted Screenplay as well as Best Cinematography.

Perry was also delighted to see the atmospheric, but perhaps lesser seen coming-of-age fantasy I Saw the TV Glow make the AFCC’s top 10 list.

“Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine both deliver amazing work in a movie that is as haunting as it is personal,” said Perry of director Jane Schoenbrun’s moody feature. “I’m so thrilled that collectively we were able to recognize I Saw the TV Glow, a movie that at its core is about finding community despite your own feelings of internal isolation.” 

Member of AFCC’s advisory board Jason Evans noted how close many of the awards were this year, with Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) beating out Colman Domingo in Sing Sing by just one point. “The number of places and categories that were decided by only one or maybe two points is stunning,” said Evans, “a sign of the quality of the films and work this year,” and an indicator of “how competitive this awards season is likely to be.”

The AFCC inaugurated Best Voice Performance and Best Dog awards this year. In a near sweep, the canine star of Deadpool & Wolverine, Peggy, was the AFCC’s top dog. The British pugese, who previously captured an award as Britain’s ugliest dog, has turned her runt of the litter status into Hollywood stardom this year.

Lupita Nyong’o won the AFCC’s first ever Best Voice Performance for her work as an intelligent robot Roz in The Wild Robot, who finds an escape from loneliness in the company of the wild animals that inhabit a desert island, including a gosling with whom she forms a special bond.

“Voiceover acting is so often overlooked, but it’s such a key part of animated films. Lupita Nyong’o brought something really special to The Wild Robot. In animation, voice acting isn’t just about delivering lines — it’s about bringing the character to life,” said AFCC member and entertainment journalist Tatyana Arrington. “It’s a huge part of what makes animated films work, and I really think it deserves more recognition.”

Jesse Nussman, AFCC advisory board member, said he hopes studios are taking note of the vision driving this year’s award winners. 

“What strikes me about many of the films that took home multiple awards — Anora, Nickel Boys, The Brutalist — is their specificity. They’re the work of filmmakers who feel unburdened by marketplace demands or fears of alienating their audiences,” he said. “Hollywood, if you’re listening? We want more.”

Complete AFCC Award List

BEST FILM: 

Anora                       

TOP 10 FILMS (ranked):              

1. Anora

2. Challengers

3. Nickel Boys

4. The Brutalist

5. Conclave

6. Dune: Part Two

7. Sing Sing

8. Wicked: Part One

9. The Wild Robot

10. I Saw the TV Glow  

BEST LEAD ACTOR:

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

BEST LEAD ACTRESS:

Mikey Madison, Anora                     

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain                  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Ariana Grande, Wicked               

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:

Sing Sing                                 

BEST DIRECTOR:

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist                            

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:                               

Sean Baker, Anora             

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:     

RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys  

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

Sugarcane                                     

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE:

Kneecap (Ireland)               

BEST ANIMATED FILM:

The Wild Robot   

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Nickel Boys        

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers         

BEST STUNT WORK:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga                                      

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER:

Mikey Madison, Anora                  

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM: 

Josh Margolin, Thelma             

BEST VOICE PERFORMANCE:

Lupita Nyong’o, The Wild Robot

BEST DOG:

Peggy as Dogpool, Deadpool & Wolverine

About the AFCC

Co-founded by longtime Atlanta film critics Felicia Feaster and Michael Clark in 2017, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle is an attempt to fill a void in the local film community, and in the representation of Atlanta’s media on the national stage. The AFCC is supported by its Advisory Board and longtime critics Jason Evans, Will Leitch, Hannah Lodge, Michael McKinney, Jesse Nussman, Kyle Pinion, and Josh Sewell.

Composed of a dynamic mix of 38 Atlanta-based critics working in newspaper, magazine, and online journalism, the AFCC’s mission is to establish a national presence for a film critics group in Atlanta and to foster a vibrant film culture in Atlanta, already home to an exploding film industry production presence.

Members (critics living in and/or currently writing for global, national, regional and/or Atlanta metro area outlets) of AFCC voted on December 8 for the group’s annual awards.